The Beer Line B neighborhood in Milwaukee is

The Beer Line B neighborhood in Milwaukee is flourishing on the former industrial Commerce Street corridor located minutes from downtown with bluffside views of the Milwaukee River. The blighted brown-field sites attracted no investment until 1997, when San Francisco architect Dan Solomon created a master plan that was later fleshed out by the city’s planning director, Peter Park. Today, the neighborhood has generated more than $120 million in private investment, and approximately 470 apartments and condominiums have been built or are nearing completion. A further 730 units, including affordable loft apartments, are in the pipeline, along with a cafe and a specialty food store. For developers, the predictability that came with the master plan has been crucial. “The fact that there was a coordinated scheme for the entire corridor was a huge incentive to make a long-range investment. Without that plan, we would have felt like a Lone Ranger, not knowing what would develop next door,” developer Bob Monnat told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.